Warren avoids cutoff of highway funds

The city of Warren has avoided the loss of highway funds, after officials changed their mind and adopted a plan required by the federal government.

The city recently submitted to state Department of Transportation a “non-discrimination plan” and an accompanying plan that assisted individuals who speak little or no English while guiding city employees.

Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, federal officials require communities to submit plans that serve as a policy to prevent discrimination. That mandate was administered by states, with the threat to freeze highway funds to any municipality that didn’t comply.

Warren city administrators and the city’s in-house lawyers worked with state transportation officials last spring to draft language that would fulfill the requirements. They said the plans would minimize the risk that the city could be sued successfully in a civil rights case.

But when the 28-page Title VI Non-Discrimination Plan and the 12-page Limited English Proficiency, or LEP, policy reached the City Council, council members narrowly rejected it in July.

None of the seven council members objected to the content. In fact, some of them noted that the details were worthwhile and commendable. However, some dubbed it another unfunded federal mandate. Officials said the hiring of translators and interpreters, for example, could cost the city about $150 each time any person needed help understanding city documents or in conversing with Warren employees.

“We’re stuck with all these compliance issues and they’re not free,” council President Cecil St. Pierre said at the time.

“I take offense to the fact that they’re now holding…us hostage for this (highway) money,” Councilman Scott Stevens said. Stevens voted against the plans “out of principle” and was joined in voting no by Keith Sadowski, Kelly Colegio and Steven Warner to defeat the measure. That appeared to astonish those in the minority who quietly and immediately pointed out to their colleagues in the majority that federal funds were in jeopardy.

A short time later in the same meeting, Colegio unexpectedly pushed for a “reconsideration.” With a chance to re-think the earlier vote, she and Warner then voted to pass both plans, providing a 5-2 majority in favor of the plans.

Bill Gambill, Warren neighborhood services and grants coordinator, said Friday that the council’s endorsement allowed Mayor James Fouts and Clerk Paul Wojno to sign both plans. The plans were recently submitted to the state, avoiding a cutoff of road funding, he said.